Angling Report – 03 March 2017

Three days and three nights of almost continuous rain – which was heavy at times – created flooded rivers and lots of dirty water plus plenty of weeds and rubbish flowing into the sea.
When the rain finally stopped I had a look at the sea and the water was dirty as far as the eye could see, but it was all the weeds and rubbish in the water that really opened my eyes.
The North Easterly wind on Friday distributed the dirty water over a larger area and the inshore game fishing areas were not looking too inviting for the offshore anglers.
Saturday turned out to be a good day for anglers. Nice and sunny with a light to moderate wind but more bad weather was forecast for Sunday so it was a really tough week for those wanting to put a line in the water. There are always those that will fish in any conditions and these guys found sandies and large skates on the bite but no edibles of note.
I had planned to try for pompano last week but was reduced to sitting and watching the water for a while on Friday morning. There was one angler on the beach where I was going to try but even though the guy tried hard, he had no luck at all.
I had a word with one of my offshore angling friends on Sunday and he said that he had caught a couple of nice fish on Saturday morning off Durban but Sunday was blown out as another front moved up the coast. He did not travel deep but said that other skippers caught a few decent bottom fish even though there was a bit of a current running. Apparently fishing was hard work and several decent bottom fish were lost to sharks and a fair amount of tackle lost as well.
It was a disappointing week for the offshore anglers but the summer season is not over yet and all that is needed are some decent fishing conditions.
The cost of fuel has increased again with the new levy that has been added and it is easy to understand why one does not see the number of ski boats fishing the inshore game fishing reefs as there were in the past. More recently, jetskis were all the rage but not so many of these craft are seen at sea either.
People are thinking twice now before planning a launch, whereas before skippers would launch their boast most weekends, weather and sea conditions permitting.
I was in the supermarket the other day and was looking at the price of barracouta cutlets. My thoughts were that one has to be really desperate for fresh fish to pay the price that was being asked. I think back to when I was fishing almost every weekend and there was no shortage of fresh fish in the house.
I met a fellow deep sea angler at the beach last week and we were talking about when we began fishing offshore and in those days most offshore craft that were launched from the beach were powered by only one outboard motor. There were mishaps aplenty with broken limbs, dented egos and damaged craft. There were none of the electronic devices that there are today such as GPS, fancy fish finders and cellphones. Skippers hadhand-held radios and relied on landmarks to find the reefs – plus the early fish finders were primitive compared to today’s standards.
In those days anglers caught plenty of fish, whether it be game fish or bottom fish and at times the anglers were not sure whether they had enough power to make it safely through the surf and beach.There were occasions when anglers did not make it safely and ended up in the water next to an upturned boat. The ex-mayor of Umhlanga told me once that when fishing offshore, one had to have their wits about them at all times. It was amazing the rivalry amongst the anglers but when there was any sort of emergency, everyone was at hand to help in any way that they could.
My friend asked me whether I missed the excitement of the old days and I answered that I missed the good times – but not the times when things went wrong and I wasn’t sure whether I would ever feel firm ground beneath my feet again.

Sealice

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